How Scottsdale Invented The Golf Package

A Little Background Info On Golf Packaging In Scottsdale

Back in the late nineties when I was a Sales Manager at a golf resort in N. Scottsdale I was always amazed at the number of golfers I talked to that distrusted or would not consider booking golf or lodging with a third- party booking agency. They had their reasons, among them: A. They thought they were paying more for the service. B. They got burned by someone who didn't know what they were doing and either didn't meet the customers' expectations or caused the customer to lose money. Or C. They didn't like what they heard on the phone or distrusted the information given.

At that time the Internet was in it's infancy (some say it still is in the year 2007) and only the really interesting people would call and say they saw you on the World Wide Web. When that happened it was panic time because we, as sales people, did not have access to the Internet and God only knew what the marketing people were putting on our hotel's website. The Sales Department was always the last to know! Even though many of the early Internet calls came from tire-kickers, not knowing what they were talking about made us look and feel like idiots and it wasn't long before we worked things out with those marketing folks. To me there is nothing more annoying than calling a business who has advertised a special and getting someone on the phone who knows nothing about it! Hold your ear away from the receiver as they yell out, "Hey, Joe, ya know anything about a special?"

The Few But The Proud

Good wholesalers were at a premium then too and golfers trusted the few they could find to get them the best courses, preferred tee times and the best deals on accommodations. It was either that or roll the dice after seeing pictures in a golf magazine. Scottsdale/Phoenix Arizona was opening new courses at the rate of 10 or more per year and constructing more hotel rooms than you could keep track of - business was good. 

Packaging Golf was no strange process to me, I was promoting and selling Scottsdale/Phoenix golf (at that time just 8 courses!) packages on a wholesale basis back in the 80's- without a computer. Just me, my trusty IBM Selectric typewriter and a phone (the fax machine had just been introduced to the masses and I was waiting for the fad to pass). I had some hotel experience as a member of a sales team at a golf resort in Scottsdale so when it came time to negotiate net rates with hotels and courses I knew how far I could push them. It was all so new then that we invented stuff as we went and the hospitality industry exploded around us. Computerized reservation systems, Golf vouchers, email confirmations and computerized tee sheets were still years in the future but the writing was on the wall. Moving over to accept a position as Dir. of Sales & Marketing for an up-and-coming Scottsdale golf packager in 2000 brought me back to my roots as a wholesaler. It was all familiar stuff and as much as I try to deny it, I can't help feeling a little like Al Gore, he invented the Internet and I invented golf packaging.